Briana Valle, left, with her mother Alicia Guerrero. Guerrero had sought an order of protection for nearly a year against the man accused of gunning her daughter down in the driveway of Guerrero's Romeoville home.

Briana Valle, left, with her mother Alicia Guerrero. Guerrero had sought an order of protection for nearly a year against the man accused of gunning her daughter down in the driveway of Guerrero's Romeoville home. (Family photo)

Time and again Alicia Guerrero had sought protection from the man accused of shooting her in the neck and fatally wounding her 15-year-old daughter last month in the driveway of their Romeoville home.

A Tribune review of court records captures the mother's harrowing, nearly yearlong quest to shield her child, Briana Valle, from Erick Maya, 23, the teen's former boyfriend who is charged with her death.

They were shot in their car Feb. 13 as Guerrero prepared to take her daughter to school.

"I can't think or have peace," Guerrero had written last March as she sought an emergency order of protection against Maya. "He is an adult and she is a minor. I want him to leave us alone."

The peace she looked for proved elusive. Court records and interviews with law enforcement officials reveal a series of clerical errors and faulty addresses that may have led to nearly a dozen failed attempts by Cook and Will County authorities to serve Maya with the orders of protection that Guerrero had been granted. And some of these miscues happened after Maya was convicted of domestic abuse, put on probation and wore an ankle monitor.

But there also were other missed opportunities. Just a week before Briana was fatally wounded, a Cook County judge declined to issue an arrest warrant for Maya after he failed to appear in court for a Feb. 6 status hearing on an unrelated domestic abuse case. The judge, citing the frigid weather, let Maya's absence slide but said he would issue the warrant if he didn't appear at his next court date, Feb. 19.

"This could've been prevented," Guerrero told the Tribune in a written statement. "We are so angry and hurt."

The Tribune also learned that federal authorities in October 2011 placed an "immigration detainer," or hold, on Maya after he was arrested in the abuse case. In such instances, law enforcement agencies are asked to notify immigration before releasing the detainee and to maintain custody for up to an additional 48 hours so they may respond.

Officials with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said their request was ignored. Maya, who was believed to be in the country illegally, was released one month after Cook County enacted a controversial ordinance that orders the sheriff to refuse to cooperate with such detention requests.

"The release of a serious criminal offender like Mr. Maya to the streets in Cook County, rather than to ICE custody, undermines ICE's ability to protect public safety and impedes us from enforcing the nation's immigration laws," said Gail Montenegro, a Chicago spokeswoman for the federal agency.

Sheriff Tom Dart opposed the ordinance requiring that his office refuse to follow through on ICE deportations but has no choice but to follow the county's order, according to a spokesman.

The Tribune's review of the case raises questions about whether enough was done to protect Guerrero and her daughter from a man with a history of violence. The incident also underscores the inherent limits in the protective order system, experts say.

Advocates stress that even when an abuser is served with an order of protection, it is only effective when that person chooses to abide by it. A victim can do everything right and still end up face to face with the last person they want to see.

"With an offender that's determined enough, the order of protection doesn't build a wall around you," said Amy Milligan, counseling and advocacy director at the Wheaton-based Family Shelter Service.

Officials with the Cook County Adult Probation Department also said they are reviewing whether Maya's case was properly handled by his probation officer.

Maya, captured near the family's home shortly after the shootings, is being held in the Will County Jail on charges that include murder and aggravated battery with a firearm. At the time of his arrest, hewas on probation for domestic battery against a former girlfriend.

Alicia Guerrero's requests for orders of protection reveal a frightened mother driven to the brink.

"She feels afraid of him and what he might do to us," Guerrero said of her young daughter, according to court documents. "I fear for our safety."

An obsession

Maya's alleged harassment of the family began after Briana, then 13, met him on Facebook in June 2012, when her family lived in Chicago's Little Village. At the time, he was 21 but claimed to be 16, Guerrero alleged in court records.

About two months later, Briana — who had a history of depression — ran away with Maya for two weeks, Guerrero stated in court records. The teen was eventually found at Maya's residence in the 1300 block of 50th Court in Cicero.

"I didn't know where she was or with whom," Guerrero wrote in the March 2013 petition. "I found her with Cicero Police 2 weeks later. (Maya) called me that day she was picked up and was begging that I wouldn't press charges."

Guerrero later said in court papers that she didn't press charges against Maya after the 2012 incident because "my daughter was obsessed with Erick."

But he kept coming around, records indicate. Guerrero alleges that at one point in early 2013, Maya picked Briana up from school in Chicago and took her to his friend's house in Cicero,leading Guerrero to file the petition seeking protection for her and her daughter in March 2013.

"I filed an order of protection in Cook County because he was harassing me on the phone saying: 'I won't stop seeing your daughter,' 'I will do anything I want,' 'We will be together forever,'" Guerrero said in records. "My daughter told me that Erick was coming around my home and my neighborhood, watching her and her father. My daughter told me that she saw Erick around when she was taken by my husband to school."

Cook County sheriff's deputies tried to serve the summons for the emergency order four times but were unable to make contact with him, said Cara Smith, a sheriff's office spokeswoman.

He never appeared in court for the Cook County order, and it was dismissed in May, according to records.

In September 2013, Maya visited their Little Village apartment and gave Briana a ring even though he knew he was not supposed to be there, the mother alleged in court records.

The next month he pleaded guilty to aggravated domestic battery in an unrelated October 2011 case in which he beat his former girlfriend with a beer bottle and a metal pipe and then kicked her when she fell down, according to the records.

After the 2011 arrest, ICE officials said, they notified authorities of the immigration detainer, but Maya was released anyway. In a 2013 guilty plea, he was sentenced to serve 60 days in the county jail and 21/2 years of probation, as well as ordered to attend anger management and domestic violence classes.

Unknown to immigration officials, Maya was released from the county jail Nov. 30, after completing his jail time. His felony conviction may be grounds for deportation, but immigration officials said they weren't notified again.

Cook County officials said the county's "sanctuary ordinance" is partly related to the cost of keeping suspected illegal immigrants locked up. But ICE has harshly criticized the law, arguing it poses a serious danger to communities.

Supporters such as Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle argue that ICE detainers have ensnared people arrested for traffic violations and other minor offenses, and those later found not guilty. They also argue that detaining people after they have posted bail constitutes illegal search and seizure without probable cause.

It's unclear how well Maya adhered to his probation requirements. In an interview before he was recently replaced as adult probation department head, Jesus Reyes said records showed that Maya enrolled in and attended several classes, but Reyes declined to provide the dates for when Maya did so.

On Feb. 6, 2014, a week before the shootings, an ankle monitor showed he violated his court-imposed curfew when he got home more than an hour late, records show.

But that violation was not serious enough to warrant discipline, Reyes said.

"Our policy says that after three curfew violations, we initiate a violation petition with the court," Reyes said. "If we were to bring everyone who violates on the first instance, we'd have a whole lot more people in court. And if the court were to put them in jail, we'd have a whole lot more people in jail."

Earlier that same day, a prosecutor asked a judge to issue an arrest warrant when Maya did not appear for a status hearing on his probation, but the judge declined — citing the extreme cold.

"I would normally grant that," Judge Gregory Ginex said, according to a copy of the transcript of the hearing. "Because of the weather — we are conscious that the weather has been very bad. Today is sunny but probably 10 below."

Ginex later declined to comment.

Lavone Haywood, who replaced Reyes, said a probationer missing a status hearing is rare. He would not say what the department's "investigatory review" would specifically address but noted that it will delve into whether Maya attended the mandatory anger management and domestic violence classes.

The review "will determine what we do with the (probation) officer, if there was any negligent management," Haywood said.

'Make her bleed'

Last fall, Guerrero and her daughter moved to Romeoville. The mother told the Tribune the family moved, in part, to get away from Maya and get "a fresh start."Officials at Romeoville High School confirmed that Briana began attending classes in October.

But Maya's involvement in their lives continued. He allegedly directed violent threats toward the girl and her family in December. Guerrero called Romeoville police to report the threats, which were sent to one of Briana's friends.

The officer suggested she obtain an order of protection, which she did Dec. 16.

"Erick texted my daughter's friend saying that he was planning to bring 30 guys to my home and break down my door and (rape) me and my daughter and my son," she wrote in her Will County petition for an emergency order of protection. "He also said that he was going to make her bleed."

A spokesman for Romeoville police said the officer ran Maya's name through a law enforcement database but said the database does not contain information about whether a person is on probation.

The spokesman declined to say whether Maya could have been charged with a crime over the threatening texts.

Guerrero also noted in her Will County emergency order petition that Maya had a handgun under his mattress, according to court records. A box on the petition was checked noting that Maya was "considered armed and/or dangerous."

Another box was checked noting that Maya "is likely to use firearms illegally against me."

Guerrero was granted the emergency order that same day and delivered it to the Cook County Sheriff's Office, which tried but failed to serve Maya.

Two weeks later, the order was extended and the sheriff's office again tried to serve Maya.

Cook County deputies attempted to serve Maya a total of 10 times — four for the first emergency order from Cook County and six more on the emergency order from Will County, said Smith, the sheriff's department spokeswoman.

"There were 10 attempts to serve it at all times of day or night," she said, adding that all were unsuccessful.

The repeated failures may have been due in part to the fact that Maya had moved to a new apartment in Cicero sometime in late December, according to Reyes.

Maya's probation officer visited him at his home in the 1300 block of 50th Court in Cicero on Dec. 22. On Jan. 8, the probation officer again visited that address and learned from Maya's father that his son had moved to the 5600 block of Park Avenue in Cicero, Reyes said.

No law enforcement official ever contacted his office to see if it had a different address for Maya, he added.

The first address was the one Guerrero provided in her petition for the Will County protection order, according to Will County officials.

One summons that Will County mailed to that address mistakenly listed Maya's first name as Rick, not Erick. It was returned unserved, court records said.

The last protection order

Briana, who was shot twice Feb. 13 as her mother prepared to drive her to school, died of her injuries four days later.

Guerrero told the Tribune how much her daughter loved their new home and how close the two had become in recent months. Briana also had a new boyfriend, her mother said.

"She wanted to be a nurse and have a family," Guerrero wrote in an email. "She won't be able to do any of that now. She won't get to have a daughter as beautiful as she is.

"She told me that night before my life was ruined that she loved me, that I was her best friend, that I was her everything."

The mother continued: "I lived my whole life fighting for her and I won't stop now."

Briana's obituary recalls a girl who loved music, makeup and her cousins.

"I always looked forward to our visits. … I can still feel you in my arms, when you 'let' me hug you," her grandmother, Maria Morales, wrote in an online guest book.

"I am so sorry you are not here to roll your eyes at me and say, 'Oh, Grandma!' in your long suffering tone."

Immigration officials said they've placed another detainer request on Maya. And he also was finally served with Guerrero's order of protection.

A man who was charged with shooting a 15-year-old girl and her mother outside of their Romeoville home this week had threatened to rape and kidnap the girl last year and was ordered by a judge to stay away from them, according to court documents.

Bail was set at $5 million dollars this morning for a 23-year-old Cicero man charged in connection with a shooting that left a woman and her 15-year-old daughter seriously wounded outside of their Romeoville home on Thursday.

Police in Joliet on Wednesday were still investigating an incident in which a 7-month-old boy was left alone for about two hours inside a parked SUV with the windows rolled up and temperatures outside in the high 80s.